It wasn't until I was 26 or 25 when I started sending work out to magazines.

I've been getting into Nick Drake lately, the folk singer. Sad, gorgeous stuff.

I found my first novel difficult. I don't want to make it sound like it's any more difficult than driving a cab or going to any other job, but there are so many opportunities for self-doubt, that you just kind of need to soldier on.

Things hardly ever work on the first try. We'll make another, a better one.

Watching teething babies is like watching over a thermonuclear reactor-it is best done in shifts, by well-rested people.

WWII is something contemporary readers already know a lot about. If our schools are doing their jobs, they know about the invasion of Normandy, the Hitler Youth, the Holocaust, and at least a few of the horrors of the Eastern Front.

I guess you could say I've been writing all my life.